Sharon imam pleads guilty to visa fraud

Iman Muhammad Masood, the former spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of New England in Sharon, plead guilty today to five counts of giving false statements and visa fraud.

Lane Lambert

Iman Muhammad Masood, the former spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of New England in Sharon, plead guilty today to five counts of giving false statements and visa fraud.

The Pakistan native was picked up in a multi-state immigration sweep in November 2006, then indicted on criminal charges last August.

With the plea agreement now in place, sentencing is scheduled for May 22. His attorney and the government have reportedly agreed that the government will recommend three years probation.

Masood had no comment after the hearing. His attorney Norman Zalkind said, “We made what we considered a very good agreement based on the evidence.”

Masood, 49, had been charged on nine counts of visa fraud.

The Pakistan native was picked up in a multi-state immigration sweep in November 2006, then indicted on criminal charges last August.

Prosecutors allege that he illegally stayed in the U.S. in 1991 instead of returning to Pakistan, as required by a student visa program that brought him to Boston University in 1988. The government has said he then lied about the student visa and other personal information in a 2001 green card application.

Masood was named spiritual leader for the Islamic Center’s Sharon mosque in 1998. He and his family have continued to live on the mosque property, even though he no longer has an official position there.